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AMN Construction · Finish carpentry

Finish carpentry, built in Carpinteria and fitted to your house.

Cabinetry, baseboard, casing, doors, windows, shelving and hardware: the woodwork you see and touch every day. Custom pieces are built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, then fitted on site from Goleta to Carpinteria by Tom, a finish carpenter with fifty years at the bench.

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In short

No wall is flat and no floor is level. Finish carpentry is the work of making wood meet them as if they were: every joint closed, every gap even, every door latching without a push.

19 services

  1. Custom cabinetryCustom means every cabinet is sized to the room, so no filler strips make up the difference.
  2. BaseboardsFloors and walls are never straight. Good baseboard is cut to follow them, so no gaps show.
  3. Door and window casingCasing hides the joint between the frame and the wall, and sets the style of the room.
  4. Window installationMost window trouble is water, not glass. How the opening is flashed matters more than the window itself.
  5. Door installationA door that sticks, drifts or will not latch is hung wrong. The door itself is rarely the problem.
  6. Custom shelvingA shelf sags when it is too thin for its span. Thickness, material and support are worked out first.
  7. Hardware installationHardware is seen in rows. One pull set slightly off is what the eye finds first.
  8. Crown moldingCeilings are rarely level or flat. Good crown is fitted to hide that, not to show it.
  9. Wainscoting and wall panelingLayout comes first. Panels are spaced to suit the wall before a single board is cut.
  10. Built-insA built-in is made to the room, so it fills the space with no leftover gaps.
  11. Custom closetsCount your clothes first. Hanging space, shelves and drawers are sized from what you own.
  12. Stair railings and treadsA good rail does not move or rattle when you lean on it.
  13. Fireplace mantels and surroundsClearances come first. Code and the fireplace maker set how close wood can be.
  14. Ceiling beams and coffered ceilingsMost decorative beams are hollow boxes. They look solid, weigh little, and carry no load.
  15. Kitchen cabinet installationFloors are not level. The run starts from the floor’s high point, and every other cabinet is shimmed up to it.
  16. Bathroom vanitiesBathrooms are wet. Materials and finish are chosen to resist water, including the edges nobody sees.
  17. Custom furniture and piecesSolid wood swells and shrinks with the seasons. Good furniture is built to let it.
  18. Trim and door repairA sticking door is a symptom. The cause is usually the hinges, moisture, or a house that has settled.
  19. Exterior trimWater is the enemy. Trim lasts when every cut end is sealed and water has a way off.

The shop

Built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria.

Some finish work is cut and fitted in the room: baseboard, casing, crown, a door hung in its frame. Some is better built on a bench first. Cabinets, built-ins, vanities, mantels, shelving and one-off pieces are made in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, where joints can be cut clean and a finish can cure out of the dust.

Then the piece comes to the house and is scribed in: its edges cut to the real shape of your wall, floor and ceiling, so it looks as if it was always there.

one sheet, cut to sizeglued, screwed, squaredgaps even all roundsprayed and cured, out of the dustlevelshimmed,scribed
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How a cabinet is built

  1. Cut the partsSides, bottom, top and back are cut from one sheet of cabinet-grade plywood, so the grain and color match.
  2. Assemble the boxThe parts are glued and screwed into a box, then checked corner to corner so it is square.
  3. Face frame or edgeSolid wood is fixed to the front edges. It is what the eye reads, and where the doors will hang.
  4. Doors and drawersDoors and drawer fronts are made and hung with an even gap all round, the same width everywhere.
  5. Finish in the shopPaint or stain goes on in the shop, sanded between coats, and cures before the piece leaves.
  6. Level, fasten, scribeOn site the cabinet is leveled from the floor’s high point, fastened to the wall, and a filler is cut to the wall’s real shape.

AMN Construction is a licensed general contractor, CSLB 802739, licensed since 2001. Tom builds the work. Matt Newman, the principal, answers for it, as he does for the houses.

The carpenter

50years at the bench

Tom, the finish carpenter, smiling in an AMN Construction shirt
Tom fitting cabinet hardware from a rolling scaffold

Tom. Fifty years of cabinets and finish carpentry.

Tom has been building custom cabinets and doing finish carpentry for fifty years. That is half a century of kitchens, libraries, staircases and front doors, each one measured, cut and fitted by hand to a house that was never quite square.

He learned the trade and practiced it in Oregon and in Hawaii, then across Los Angeles County: Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Westlake Village and beyond. Houses on the ocean, houses in the hills, houses where the woodwork was expected to be the best thing in the room. In 1992 he was on the ladder at the Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust in Los Angeles, fitting the panels of its painted synagogue ceiling.

Now he builds here, for homes in Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito, Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara and Goleta. Custom pieces are made in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, then fitted in your house by the person who built them.

Any custom cabinetry you need, we will build.

  1. Oregon
  2. Hawaii
  3. Malibu
  4. Pacific Palisades
  5. Westlake Village
  6. Los Angeles County
  7. Carpinteria
  8. Summerland
  9. Montecito
  10. Hope Ranch
  11. Santa Barbara
  12. Goleta

Our work

Finish work, photographed.

Santa Barbara South Coast

Woodwork through a Spanish-style house

Tom built the woodwork through this house above the ocean: beams and plank ceilings, arched doors and windows, the kitchen cabinets, the mantels and the bath vanity. One hand in every room, which is why it reads as one house.

Ceiling beams and coffered ceilings · Door installation · Custom cabinetry

A living room with exposed wood beams, a plank ceiling, a wood mantel and arched wood-framed glass doors open to an ocean terrace
Beams, plank ceiling and arched doors to the terrace
A kitchen with stained wood frame-and-panel cabinets, wood-cased windows and a marble island
The kitchen
Tall wood-framed glass doors standing open between a beamed living room and a tiled terrace
Doors open to the terrace
A dining room with exposed beams, a wood mantel shelf and wood-framed glass doors facing the ocean
The dining room: beams, mantel and doors
Exposed wood beams and a plank ceiling above white plaster walls with arched openings
The beamed ceiling
A wood vanity with drawers and doors under a tiled counter with two basins, and wood-framed mirrors above
The bath vanity

Santa Barbara South Coast

Oak cabinetry through a new Spanish-style house

Cabinetry for a whole new house: a pale oak kitchen with a paneled hood, floor-to-ceiling storage in the hall and laundry, a dark wood bar with glass doors, a painted console cabinet, painted cubbies, and paneled wood doors.

Custom cabinetry · Built-ins · Door installation

A kitchen with pale oak frame-and-panel cabinets, a paneled hood, glass-fronted wall cabinets and a white stone island
The kitchen
A floor-to-ceiling pale oak cabinet with four tall doors and four upper doors, fitted into a hall alcove
Hall storage, floor to ceiling
Tall pale oak cabinet doors with long pulls, built to the ceiling
Tall cabinets in the laundry
Pale oak laundry cabinets around a stacked washer and dryer
The laundry
A dark wood bar cabinet with glass-fronted upper doors and drawers below, beside a stone fireplace
The bar: dark wood and glass doors
A low dark green painted cabinet with four paneled doors fitted into an alcove
A painted console cabinet

Santa Barbara South Coast

Painted cabinetry and closets through a remodeled house

Finish work through a whole remodel: a kitchen with sage-green base cabinets and white uppers, a pantry nook with open shelves over a wood counter, a painted bath vanity, closets fitted with shelves and hanging rods, and a stair with new wood treads.

Custom cabinetry · Custom closets · Custom shelving

A long kitchen run of sage-green Shaker base cabinets with brass pulls under a white counter, and white wall cabinets
The kitchen: sage base cabinets, white uppers
A nook with white open shelves above a wood counter and sage-green open base cabinets
The pantry nook
A cream painted Shaker vanity with brass pulls under a green stone top
The bath vanity
A painted white closet with shelves and hanging rods on three walls
A closet: shelves and hanging rods
A narrow walk-in closet fitted with white shelves and double hanging rods on both sides
A walk-in closet
A stair with new light wood treads, white risers and a wall-mounted handrail
New wood treads on the stair

Finish carpentry projects

Where we work

Six towns, one stretch of coast.

  1. CarpinteriaSalt air pits and seizes ordinary hinges and latches, so hardware near the beach is chosen for its metal and finish first.
  2. SummerlandOn a small lot the house is usually compact, and a built-in uses wall depth that freestanding furniture wastes.
  3. MontecitoRooms in estate houses are often large or unusually proportioned, so cabinetry is usually made to the room and not picked from a catalog.
  4. Santa BarbaraCraftsman bungalows usually have wide, flat casing with a distinct head piece, and a patch in the wrong width shows from across the room.
  5. Hope RanchLarger houses usually have pantries, studies, laundry rooms and bars, each wanting cabinets made to the room.
  6. GoletaOriginal baseboard in houses of this era is usually low and plain, and it is often damaged by decades of flooring changes.

Questions

Finish carpentry: what owners ask.

What does a finish carpenter do?
A finish carpenter does the woodwork you see and touch once the walls are closed: cabinets, baseboard, door and window casing, crown molding, paneling, doors, shelving, stair railings, mantels and the hardware on all of it. Rough carpentry is the frame behind the walls. Finish carpentry is everything in front of them.
What is the difference between finish carpentry and rough carpentry?
Rough carpentry builds the structure: studs, joists, rafters and sheathing, all of it later covered. Finish carpentry is the visible layer, where joints are measured in fractions and every gap shows. The first has to be strong and straight. The second has to be strong, straight and good to look at.
Do you build custom pieces, or only install?
Both. Custom cabinets, shelving, built-ins, vanities, mantels and furniture are built in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria, then fitted in your house. We also install cabinets, doors, windows, trim and hardware that you or your designer have bought elsewhere.
Which towns do you work in?
Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito, Santa Barbara, Hope Ranch and Goleta. The shop is in Carpinteria, and the work is fitted on site in your house anywhere on that stretch of the South Coast.
How do I get a price for finish carpentry?
Prices vary with the materials and the hours a job takes. Each job is custom and unique. Email photographs of the room and rough measurements to purchasing@amnbuild.com, or call 805 886 0988, and say what you have in mind. For most work we then measure on site.
Who does the carpentry?
Tom, our finish carpenter. He has built custom cabinets and done finish carpentry for fifty years, in Oregon, in Hawaii, and across Los Angeles County, including Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Westlake Village. He now builds for homes from Goleta to Carpinteria.
Will you build any kind of custom cabinet?
Yes. Kitchens, baths, pantries, closets, libraries, garages, bars, a cabinet for one awkward corner: if it is custom cabinetry, we will build it. It is made in our small boutique shop in Carpinteria and fitted in your house.

Inquiries

Have a room in mind? Send us the photographs.

Email photographs of the room and rough measurements to purchasing@amnbuild.com. Matt reads it himself. No forms.

Email Matt the photographsOr call Matt · 805 886 0988

Updated October 2026

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